Washington Monument

Washington Monument
National Register of Historic Places
	Washington Monument, 2016
location	National Mall , between 14th and 17th Sts., NW, Washington, DC , USA
Coordinates	38 ° 53 ′ 22 " N , 77 ° 2 ′ 7" W.
surface	42.90 ha
Built	1848 to 1884
architect	Robert Mills
Architectural style	classicism
Number of visitors	671,031 (2008)
NRHP number	66000035
The NRHP added	October 15, 1966

Washington Monument at night

Base of the monument with flag circle

The Washington Monument during the 25-year construction hiatus, around 1860

The Washington Monument is a white marble tower in Washington, DC in the shape of an obelisk that sits on a hill on the National Mall - a straight line connecting the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial .

Originally the 169.05 meter high structure was to be erected at the intersection of the sight lines of the rotunda of the Capitol and the oval south portico of the White House , but the lack of load-bearing capacity of the building site in this area made it necessary to relocate the building site towards the Capitol. This memorial was erected in honor of the first President of the United States of America , George Washington . The monument was designed by Robert Mills . The construction phase lasted from the laying of the foundation stone on July 4, 1848 to December 6, 1884.

The reflection of the monument can be viewed from the Lincoln Memorial in the so-called Reflecting Pool , a large pool of water at the foot of the hill.

history

The first plans for the construction of a memorial already existed during Washington's lifetime, but after his death in 1799 they could not agree on the financing and a design. Finally, in 1832, on the 100th birthday of George Washington, committed citizens founded the Washington National Monument Society with the aim of financing the construction of a monument through donations . Mills emerged victorious from a design competition in 1836, but his design included a portico with statues of Washington and other heroes of the Revolutionary War around the obelisk . This was controversial and would have cost over a million dollars. However, there was only about $ 86,000 in donations.

In spring 1848 it was decided to build the monument first in order to acquire more donations through visible progress. The foundation stone was donated by a Masonic Lodge . Six years later, however, the money was used up and the construction of the monument was far from complete. Promised state support was withdrawn after a dispute over donated stones - an anti-Catholic group protested against one of Pope Pius IX. donated stone and blocked all progress until 1858. Then the American Civil War broke out and prevented further work.

A few years after the end of the war, interest in the half-finished monument awoke, and in 1876, for the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence , the US Congress approved $ 200,000 (according to today's purchasing power $ 4,910,000) . After a renewed dispute over the design, construction work resumed in 1879 and finally ended on December 6, 1884. The interruption in construction can still be seen today in the different qualities of the facing bricks in the lower third compared to those in the upper two thirds of the building. The memorial was inaugurated by Chester A. Arthur on February 21, 1885 and opened to the public on October 9, 1888. It was planned as a visitor attraction from the start; the viewing platform below the top opened up a staircase of 898 (today 897) steps and an elevator installed in 1888, powered by a steam engine. It is designated a National Memorial and is administered by the National Park Service as part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks . It was added to the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1981.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , an earth wall was built around the monument, which functions as a security measure. It is supported by a 76 cm high wall, which prevents vehicles from approaching and also serves as a seating element.

The monument was damaged in the Virginia earthquake on August 23, 2011 . Parts of the surface were cracked and their strength was reduced. In January 2012, David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group , announced that he was earmarking $ 7.5 million for the repair. With that he alone raised the rest of the probable repair costs, for which private donors were sought after half of the costs were covered by the US Congress in December 2011. The monument was reopened to the public on May 12, 2014 after around 32 months of renovation.

Dimensions

The Washington Monument is 169.05 meters (554 feet , 7.34 inches) high and 16.8 meters (55 feet) wide at the base. The body of the monument is slimmed down to the height (at 152 meters) of the pyramid base at the top to 10.49 meters. The wall thickness of the monument tapers from 4.60 meters thick at the base to the mentioned height of 152 meters to 46 centimeters wall thickness. Then the four-sided pyramid converges to a point at the remaining 17.3 meters high. The 22 cm high top of this pyramid, designed as part of the lightning rod system, consists of 2.85 kg of pure aluminum (100 oz). The metal of the tip was priced in the order of silver at the time of its manufacture and only then became significantly cheaper. During the planning period and a short time after its completion until the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889, the monument was the tallest structure on earth . In this ranking it replaced Cologne Cathedral . To this day it is the tallest stone structure in the world.

The Washington Monument from the air, with the White House in the background

Others

Below the top is a visitor level with windows. The elevator takes you past various donated stone blocks, some of which are particularly elaborate. The state of California also donated a stone whose inscription was decorated with gold leaf. The ship with this stone sank in a storm off the American east coast. The replacement stone that California sent afterwards and which is now installed in the monument was delivered without gold leaf. The staircase with 897 steps (originally 898, the lowest one has now been replaced by a ramp) was closed to visitors in 1976.

The aluminum cap of the top of the monument bears several inscriptions:

North side	West side	South side	East Side
Joint Commission at Setting of Capstone Chester A. Arthur W. W. Corcoran, Chairman M. E. Bell Edward Clark John Newton Act of August 2, 1876	Corner Stone Laid on Bed of Foundation July 4, 1848 First Stone at Height of 152 feet laid August 7, 1880 Capstone set December 6, 1884	Chief Engineer and Architect, Thos. Lincoln Casey, Colonel, Corps of Engineers Assistants: George W. Davis, Captain, 14th Infantry Bernard R. Green, Civil Engineer Master Mechanic P. H. McLaughlin	Louse deodorant
The Joint Commission during the Capstone- laying Chester A. Arthur W. W. Corcoran, Chairman M. E. Bell Edward Clark John Newton on August 2, 1876	Laying of the foundation stone on July 4, 1848 Reaching 152 feet on August 7, 1880 Keystone laid on December 6, 1884	Chief engineer and architect Thos. Lincoln Casey, Colonel, Corps of Engineers Assistant George W. Davis, Captain of the 14th Infantry Bernard R. Green, Civil Engineer Senior Fitter P. H. McLaughlin	Latin for Praise be to God

George Washington statue

George Washington is not here, but is buried in his Mount Vernon country estate . In the monument, however, there is his statue, which should come very close to its actual appearance.

Copies

In Ridgeland, Mississippi, there is a 60-meter-high cell phone tower disguised as a replica of the Washington Monument.

Web links

Commons : Washington Monument - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

National Park Service: Washington Monument (official site; English)
Washington Monument Photo Gallery

Individual evidence

↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica: Washington Monument, accessed May 27, 2013 ( Memento from June 28, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

↑ American Society of Landscape Architects: Monumental Security ( Memento from June 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), April 2006 (copy in the Internet Archive)

↑ National Park Service: Philanthropist Donates 7.5 Million Dollars to Repair Washington Monument , Jan. 19, 2012.

↑ National Park Service: Washington Monument to Reopen May 12 , March 25, 2014.

↑ NOAA's National Geodetic Survey: NOAA study uses latest technology to compute updated Washington Monument height , November 4, 2015.

↑ Mississippi Business: Ridgeland's Washington Monument replica to be part of Colony Park entrance , December 7, 2012

before	Tallest building in the world	after that
Cologne cathedral	(169 m) 1884-1889	Eiffel Tower

38.889444444444 -77.035277777778Coordinates: 38 ° 53 '22 " N , 77 ° 2' 7" W.

[1] Encyclopaedia Britannica: Washington Monument, accessed May 27, 2013 ( Memento from June 28, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

[2] American Society of Landscape Architects: Monumental Security ( Memento from June 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), April 2006 (copy in the Internet Archive)